


The Shadow's World

by The_Myth_Rider



Series: The Dragon Who Shadowed An Emperor [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Crossover, Dragons, Fluff, Gen, Happy Birthday Edelgard von Hresvelg, Pre-Time Skip, Surprises, let Edelgard be happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 08:41:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24846979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Myth_Rider/pseuds/The_Myth_Rider
Summary: In which, for her birthday, Shadow takes Edelgard to a very special place, that few outside eyes get to see...
Series: The Dragon Who Shadowed An Emperor [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1610260
Kudos: 1





	The Shadow's World

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, El.

It was Edelgard’s birthday.

Her class house had gone all out, giving her flowers and sweets and well wishes. Even some of the other students—those she’d either gotten close to, or who were simply too nice to not say anything—made time to do something. Byleth was particularly sweet, almost achingly so, when she’d given Edelgard extra special attention that day. No gifts, no treats; she had provided the princess those on a regular basis, anyways. No, Byleth had simply given her time, companionship, and that ever so slightly growing smile that Edelgard had come to prefer over the sun.

More unexpected than all of these overtures, however...was Shadow’s absence.

The alien dragon god had been mysteriously gone from her back all day long. An inevitable part of Edelgard worried, as it was increasingly rare that they would not be with her. Ever since their confession, when they’d revealed themself that fateful night, Shadow had never once left her side. Their phantom had ever been at her back, reading over her shoulder, people watching as she walked the grounds. But from when she’d awoken on her birthday and all throughout its entirety, Edelgard had felt the stark lack of their company like a cold draft.

As the sun set and the sky darkened, and the world readied for sleep, Edelgard retired to her room. There was a slight melancholy to her mood, the thought of her first birthday missed by Shadow since her capture. She assumed they had a good reason; when it came to Edelgard, Shadow only ever acted with the best reasoning they could accrue. But as she lingered in her room, still dressed and hesitating to properly dress for bed, there was still pure silence.

_ They couldn’t have possibly left this world...they would’ve told me… _

With a heavy sigh, Edelgard reached for the button of her jacket. But just as she did so, the tanned fingers of Shadow gently clasped her hands. Her eyes widened, and she looked up into the soft grey-blues of Shadow’s human visage. They had a small, awfully Byleth-esque smile on their face, their drooping left eyelid slightly raised as it struggled to equal the widened right eyelid in excitement. Edelgard couldn’t help a relieved smile at their appearance.

“Oh, there you are, Shadow.” Edelgard said, happy to see them. “I was worried when I didn’t feel you near all day.”

They ducked their head, sheepish, and scratched at the nape of their neck.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Shadow apologized, gaze averted as they shrugged. “I um...I had an idea for today, and I needed to make sure I could do it.”

Edelgard tilted her head now, eyes narrowed curiously.

“Is that so? And what could you have been testing for the entirety of a day?”

She watched as Shadow drew themself up to their full height, just a few centimeters above her own, and their smile returned in full force. Without answering, they turned slightly and looked to the opposite wall of her room. Shadow raised one gloved hand, and made odd gestures and signs with their fingers. Once they were done, they gave a hearty snap, the sound of which was somehow sharper than Edelgard had expected.

Entirely unexpected was the result of the signing and the snap, as Edelgard watched in awe as a sliver of golden light vertically cut through the empty air. Like a perfect slit in space itself, but not something brutally torn, but requested and given. Shadow approached the tear, and reached their fingertips into it and slowly, gently, pulled aside the very fabric of the world. There was no violence, no offense to nature that occurred in this act, and somehow Edelgard could feel it.

Could feel as the world honored Shadow’s request, as space and time themselves bowed to the dragon god’s whim.

Edelgard could see nothing through the portal save only a veritable mosaic of color. The passage seemed composed solely of light and pure elemental essence, like it was a vein of the very universe itself. Shadow retracted one hand, the other still loosely gripped a side of the tear, and they smiled at Edelgard.

“I want to show you something.” They whispered, suddenly soft and almost bashful. “Something that very few get to see...but that I am eager to share.”

Edelgard slowly approached her friend, and stood beside them as she gazed into the pathway.

“What is this?” She asked, as she looked up at them now. “Where are we going?”

Their smile, if it was possible, grew brighter even as teeth never bared.

“I want to show you the world that I made.”

Edelgard gasped, her eyes wide at Shadow’s answer, but was gently pushed into the portal before she could hesitate any longer. It was like falling and flying all at once, a strange wind in the pathway that almost cheerfully teased at her hair and tugged at her uniform. Edelgard looked behind to try and see if Shadow was behind her, but her vision had begun to cloud over. She could swear she saw a great shape, bigger than any beast—demonic or otherwise—that she’d ever seen. But the shifting and bending of the colors around her consumed her sight, and Edelgard could not determine if this was some sort of security measure, or a failsafe to preserve her mind.

The latter, Edelgard decided, as her eyes willed themselves shut and she fell unconscious.

Edelgard didn’t know how much time passed, only that as her awareness came back, she was on her back in a deep grass. The sound of the many long leaves as they rustled in the breeze that blew past, the feel of a mighty sun warmed her face. She heard no sounds of animals, only sheer and peaceful nature. As she opened her eyes, Edelgard saw the blades of grass were tall enough to rise past her prone form. Luckily, no lingering pain wracked her from the trip, and Edelgard carefully sat up.

As her gaze broke past the grassline, her eyes widened as she looked around.

The grass she’d seen initially was the green she’d always known, but Edelgard couldn’t help but stare at the patches of grass that bore shades of reds and golds as well. It did not seem to be wheat, either; simply a vast field of grass that shifted between green, red, and yellow as if on a whim. Edelgard realized as she stood up, that she was settled on the top of a hill, a vast plain of grass stretched out around her. It was dotted by equally as odd trees, whose branches curled as if they chased something, leaves that took on a spectrum of deep violet through to abyssal blue. Their bark looked more like stone than wood, a shale grey that accentuated this impression.

The sky seemed as expected, a lovely soft blue occasionally broken up by soft, white clouds. The sun was bright and mighty, but with a start, Edelgard realized this was a far different sun than she knew. It didn’t treat her any differently, however, and its warmth felt just as nice as her sun did. After a few moments of silence, as Edelgard relaxed in the gentle, welcoming atmosphere of this strange world, she noticed an enormous shadow overtake her, and block her from the sun.

“Do you like it?”

It was Shadow’s voice, but...deeper, louder, and seemed to overwhelm Edelgard on a nigh physical level. She turned to gaze up at the usual draconic appearance, she expected, only to shout in surprise and backpedal away. Before her stood, not the humanoid dragon had followed her since she was a child, but a true dragon; immense in form, towering in stature, larger even than she imagined the Immaculate One to be. But despite the change in skeletal structure, it truly was still Shadow.

Everything was the same: the black plate-like skin that seemed to absorb rather than reflect light, red jaw with a vast chin, bushy crimson eyebrows atop stormy blue-gold eyes. Even the enormous fluffy mane had remained, and now cascaded fully down the dragon’s back, and even covered the entire length of their thick tail. Giant wings that seemed capable of darkening the entire field in which they stood lay folded on Shadow’s back, strangely feathered and equally as fantastical as the rest of their appearance.

A part of Edelgard could not fathom what she saw, too otherworldly and beyond comprehension was the beast before her. She knew, logically, that Shadow was a god; they’d confessed as such, the day they revealed themself. But somehow, despite the oddity of conversing with a humanoid dragon, she’d forgotten the full extent of their true nature. But here, now, seeing this quite literally larger than life dragon before her, who’s very being seemed to defy nature...and who created the world in which she now stood...if Sothis truly was real, than even as Edelgard still intended to topple the church, at least now she could understand. 

If Sothis was even half the entity that Shadow was, then she would’ve deserved being considered a goddess.

Shadow tilted their head, then lowered it to the ground to get as near eye-level with the small human before them as they could.

“El?”

Their voice made the earth beneath them shudder, it was so deep. But the gentle tone Edelgard knew so well was still there, and it tore her from her stupor.

“Forgive me, Shadow...you are so much... _ more _ than I ever imagined you to be.”

They smiled bashfully, eyes averted, and the shy expression was so comical and yet painfully endearing on the dragon’s visage.

“Ah, yes, that...perhaps I should’ve warned you…”

Edelgard shook her head. “No, it’s fine, you’re just…”

She slowly, hesitantly approached, and Shadow held perfectly still. Edelgard reached out, only to stop and pull off her glove. She dutifully ignored the hairthin scars on her skin, the dragon before her and the world around her an oddly efficient comfort. Edelgard rested her palm on the dragon god’s immense chin; they were gently warm, like a living star that held back so it wouldn’t burn the world around it. The metallic nature of their skin shouldn’t have been soft, and yet it was, smoother than a river-sheared rock. So vast, so  _ enormous _ was Shadow’s true form, that her hand didn’t even cover a single percentage of their chin alone.

“You are truly amazing, Shadow...daresay awe-inspiring, in fact.” Edelgard observed, as she gazed up at their now large eyes. “But I do hope you’re not extending your stay in Fodlan just to treat me for my birthday. I know you still need to rest, so you can leave to find your soulmate…”

Shadow beamed at her, the sweet expression almost making Edelgard laugh from how it looked from an immense dragon.

“Do not worry, Edelgard. I have many friends about the worlds, and time is not so linear as you may think. Elizavere will be well watched over, as I wait to continue my search. Besides…”

A sudden rush of air that disturbed the grass, and the world seemed to shift as Shadow resumed the humanoid dragon form Edelgard knew best. They knelt down, and held out a large paw to turn her around.

“You haven’t seen my animals, yet…”

As if on cue, a bestial roar that shattered the silence cut through the air, a mighty bellow like a gladiator’s challenge.

Edelgard’s jaw dropped as she beheld an immense beast, like a great lizard that burst onto the plains, break onto the scene. Their lower half was akin to a gator’s, four strong but long legs that propelled them forward. The upper half, to Edelgard’s shock, was more akin to a man’s chest that rose from where a beast’s neck normally would be. A great barreled torso, arms whose muscles made the surrounding trees look like twigs held behind it as it ran. Its great tail whipped behind it and slammed the ground, and even at a distance, Edelgard felt the earth shake from the force. Its head was that of a gator, long and fierce and set into a proud snarl.

“I have but a few hours I can keep you here, and show you around.” Shadow whispered, eager and almost conspiratorial, behind her. “Welcome to Wing Haven, Edelgard...and happy birthday.”

**Author's Note:**

> And so you guys get a peak into what it means to be Shadow, and the first appearance of their full dragon form. I haven't managed to draw it fully yet, but if you's seen my art of Shadow and Edelgard from the end of "Shadow", then just imagine that as a full proper dragon that puts Rhea to shame, and you're good. Also, yes, this is straight up an original world that I've been building; it actually turned 10 years old, on May 31st! I've told Tara about it, and her enthusiasm for it has really meant a lot. So, for Edelgard' birthday, I/Shadow thought it only appropriate that she get to be one of the few outworlders who gets to witness it.
> 
> Also, this is the animal that they see in the end: https://www.deviantart.com/voscian/art/C-Kreech-781597875


End file.
